Following the first restructuring of the college football season, the Southeastern Conference held six of the top seven spots in the AP Top 25 (a first in the rankings' 88-year history) and Notre Dame fell to No. 18 on Sunday after being upset at home.
Georgia received 54 of the 63 possible first-place votes and held firm at No. 1. Texas moved up one spot to No. 2 after dominating defending national champion Michigan on the road and received four first-place votes. The Longhorns have their highest ranking since finishing second in 2009.
The Wolverines dropped to No. 17.
No. 3 Ohio State of the Big Ten dropped one spot. Then came four more SEC teams. Alabama held firm at No. 4 and Ole Miss moved up one spot to No. 5.
Missouri moved up three spots to No. 6, and Tennessee made a big jump from No. 14 to No. 7 after defeating NC State in Charlotte.
With the SEC bigger (16 teams) — and seemingly better — than ever given the additions of Texas and Oklahoma, the circumstances were ripe for an early-season acquisition like never before.
Not only is it a poll record for six of a conference's top seven teams to land in the No. 1 spot, but never before has a single league had that many top-five teams in the top seven.
Those teams will begin playing each other in the coming weeks, so it's unlikely the SEC will be able to keep up this pace. However, it's a clear example of what's possible in the era of superconferences.
Especially after the first big upset of the college football season. Notre Dame’s 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois marked the first time a top-five team lost to an unranked team since Nov. 5, 2022, when Purdue knocked off then-No. 2 Iowa.
The Huskies’ win, the first top-five win for a Mid-American Conference team in league history, moved Northern Illinois into the No. 25 spot in the rankings. NIU is ranked for the first time since 2013 and is the first team from a non-Power 4 conference to be ranked this season.
Rounding out the top 10 are No. 8 Penn State, No. 9 Oregon from the Big Ten and No. 10 Miami. The Ducks dropped two spots after a wild comeback against Boise State.
Voting Points
Northern Illinois is one of four teams to advance in the standings this week for the first time this season.
Another notable addition is Nebraska at No. 23. The Cornhuskers are ranked for the first time since 2019 after easily beating Colorado at home. The 2019 Huskers had a brief stay in the Top 25. After starting that season ranked No. 24, they lost in Week 2, fell in the rankings, and have been out ever since.
The last season Nebraska was ranked was 2016, though even that season ended without the Huskers being ranked. They haven't finished a season ranked since 2012. That's what second-year coach Matt Rhule and freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola are looking for.
Just a reminder: Nebraska still holds the record for the longest streak of poll appearances at 348 under coach Tom Osborne from 1981 to 2002. The second-best streak is Alabama's 264 consecutive active weeks.
Inside and outside
The change came from the bottom of the standings, where Kansas, Iowa, Georgia Tech and North Carolina State all fell after losses.
No. 21 Iowa State essentially switched places with its Cy-Hawk rival by beating Iowa.
Last week, Georgia Tech made its first appearance in the AP Top 25 since 2015, breaking one of the longest active droughts among power conference teams. The Yellow Jackets lasted just a week after losing at Syracuse, but another Atlantic Coast Conference team broke its own extended drought.
Boston College, ranked 24th, holds the spot for the first time since 2018.
Conference
The only other time a conference had four of the top five teams was the SEC on Oct. 19, 2014, when Mississippi State was No. 1, Ole Miss was third, Alabama was fourth and Auburn was fifth.
SECOND: 8 (nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 15, 16).
Big Ten: 6 (nos. 3, 8, 9, 11, 17, 23).
The Big 12: 5 (nos. 12, 13, 14, 20, 21).
CASE: 4 (nos. 10, 19, 22, 24).
WATERPROOF: 1 (Number 25).
Independent: 1 (Number 18).
Ranked vs. ranked
No. 20 Arizona vs. No. 14 Kansas State (Thursday): A Big 12 game that isn't really a Big 12 game. It's a non-conference matchup that was already set before realignment.
No. 24 Boston College vs. No. 6 Missouri (Saturday): An ACC-SEC showdown with an unexpected seeding.
